I loved this book in my early teens. The main character goes through losing her .other to cancer and adjusting to a step family. She has bullies at school. Set in Australia with a dog as her companion.
Was extremely helpful to me as a teen as I dealt with my parents divorce and remarriage, family members passing away etc. Prefect for young women dealing with family issues ( )

Lara's mother dies and Lara is sent to live with a father she doesn't know and his new family. Her father's wife and her new sisters are not all eager to have her join the family, who are struggling to survive in a remote part of Australia. There's a terrible bully at her new school who adds to Lara's unhappiness. Then she finds a dog she names Thunderwith and at last she has something of her own.

This is one of those 1001 Children's Books that could by read and enjoyed by teens or adults. The characters are compelling and real, and there are no stereotypical good guys or bad guys in this story. We're rooting for Lara, of course, but we also grow to see and understand the world from the eyes of the stepmother and even the bully. ( )

Lara goes to live with her father, whom she can barely remember, after the death of her mother. Lara has to adjust to a different lifestyle, one with a hostile stepmother and little half-siblings. Lara's passage is made easier by the existence of Thunderwith, a dingo-looking dog. When Thunderwith is shot and dies, Lara can feel the presence of her mother closer than before, comforting her.

Moving tale of Lara who has lost her mother to cancer and must now live in the forest with the father she has never known, his grumpy wife and four half-siblings younger than her. As she struggles to cope with her mother's death, her father's long absences mean that she is at the mercy of Gladwyn ( her step mother) who shows very little love and affection for Lara because she is battling her own demons. In contrast, most of her half-siblings are lovely, with the exception of Pearl, the closest in age, who sees Lara as a threat and a nuisance. The only thing that unites them is their fear of the school bully Gowd Gadrey who wants Lara to give up her most precious possession. Lara is helped through all this change and uncertainity and fear by a half dingo/dog she calls Thunderwith, to whom she can tell all her secrets until a terrible thing happens with Gowd. ( )